Fashion week begins tomorrow — could it really be tomorrow? gulp — and Fashion's Night Out is Friday. And thus the scramble to wrangle a few celebrities for the front row enters its most desperate phase. "A lot of money is being exchanged and deals are being done for front row [appearances] and Fashion's Night Out," says one source, an author who was offered as much as $20,000 to do a book signing at a retailer. Reports Women's Wear Daily: "This season's going rate for shows ranges from $30,000 to $50,000. Bold-faced names are requesting $75,000 just to show up at FNO events, and the more enterprising ones are trying to wrangle advertising campaigns as well." [WWD]

Writes Eric Wilson in the Times: "Any seating faux pas will be instantly broadcast by the pack of journalists and photographers whose beat is the choreography of the front row. 'It has been changing for a while, since Billy Boy and that funny little girl who was 13 and looked 97 came along,' said Michael Roberts, who was the Vanity Fair fashion director until June, when he was replaced. (Mr. Roberts, now a style editor at large for the magazine, was referring to the famous-before-their-bedtime bloggers Bryan Boy and Tavi Gevinson.)" [NYTimes]

Cem Kaprol, one of the organizers of Istanbul fashion week, breaks it down. "The key buyers and journalists are just a bunch of people. When they come and watch your shows, see your designs, know you, and talk and write about you, then that perception starts to form. And after that, sales multiply." [WWD]

Last night's Fashion's Night Out runway show — which members of the general public paid $25-$400 to attend — took place in Lincoln Center and featured some 171 looks. Models, including Gisele Bündchen, Karolina Kurkova, and Coco Rocha filled one of those double-decker sight-seer buses and filed out to walk around the fountain. Pharrell performed live. New York has photos of what is believed to be the largest runway show of all time. [The Cut]

Women's Wear Daily has aerial shots. Designers liked the fact that it was open to the public. "All these years of seeing people try to crash my shows tells me that the public is thrilled to see a live fashion show," Michael Kors said. (Oh, Michael! You've noticed.) [WWD]

Move over, Roger: Anna Wintour's latest athlete accessory is the Knicks' Amar'e Stoudemire. Wintour personally invited Stoudemire to the Fashion's Night Out runway show, and Hamish Bowles will apparently be taking him to the Tommy Hilfiger show. A "pal" of Stoudemire promptly blabbed about it to the Post. [P6]

We kid, we kid. Federer could never fall out of Wintour's graces. (If wearing that pink shirt Wintour hated didn't do it, then nothing will.) He sat front-row with Blake Lively. [JustJared]

Meanwhile, Naomi Campbell — who was set to close the mega runway show — apparently skipped the rehearsal, which displeased the Vogue editor-in-chief. [NYDN]

There's video of the final show — where la Campbell did make her appearance on schedule — here. [TLF]

Jessica Simpson showed her denim line yesterday in New York. Reports Refinery29, the night "end[ed] in a cattle-call like presentation where Cacee Cobb, and some other peeps we've never heard of, walked down a wooden contraption while Simpson hollered out things like 'Look at that booty.'" [Refinery29]

Hilary Rhoda has been the face of Estée Lauder since 2007, and hasn't worked a show season since February of 2008. But this week will herald her return to the runway. "I haven't done shows for the past couple of seasons now, but I'm going to be doing a few during New York Fashion Week, which I'm really excited about. This time I'll really be able to enjoy it instead of having the usual craziness of all four fashion weeks." [W]

Christian Siriano, one of the designers stuck with a show time smack in the middle of Rosh Hashanah, considered switching to show in another timeslot, but the only one available was in direct conflict with Proenza Schouler. In the end, Christian opted to face the wrath of G-d rather than the risk of being eclipsed by the Proenza boys. [NYTimes]

Chanel Iman has defected from Supreme — she followed her original management team there from Ford during the great modeling agency switcheroo of 2010 — to IMG. [DFR]

Karl Lagerfeld canceled his runway show (that would be his runway show, not Chanel's or Fendi's, which are the labels he also designs for). He intends to instead sell his Karl Lagerfeld collection online and position it as a "masstige" brand. [WWD]

Vogue.com is now relaunched and renewed. Anna Wintour explains: "I felt it was crucial that in this era we take the authority, quality, and beauty of Vogue and bring those values to the digital realm. The fashion world moves so quickly now, everyone here at the magazine wants to be able to bring it to the Vogue reader on an hourly, not just monthly, basis. Also, there is just so much — too much, almost — out there on the Web. Vogue.com isn't going to be covering everything — just the right things." If anyone could make the Internet sound like an exclusive club you are at constant risk of getting kicked out of, it's her. [WWD]

Apparently the winner of this "cycle" of "America's Next Top Model" will get a spread in — but not a cover of — Vogue Italia. She will, however, get a cover of Vogue Italia's beauty supplement, which we suppose is sort of the Vogue Italia version of Seventeen's back cover. [Fashionista]

And model Tony Ward is set to be the face of D&G's next men's scent. [WWD]

Betsey Johnson seems untroubled by the fact that Steve Madden now practically owns everything she's ever touched. She tells the Post she drinks "happy coffee" from a white mug every night at work. "That way no one knows what I'm drinking." [NYPost]

Tavi Gevinson — whose New Yorker profile must be almost ready to be published by now, surely — is set to style the musicians Amanda Blank and the Pierces, who will perform at the Alice & Olivia presentation. [Elle]

This "preview" of Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen's pop-up Elizabeth & James store is really just a two-second shot of the darkened storefront, set to Air's "Sexy Boy." [FabSugar]

If you have a spare $750,000 and are possessed of a desire to own a chic little powerboat, Gucci (and Riva) have created something with you in mind. [WWD]

Marc Jacobs is rumored to be opening a café. His newest store in Milan includes a café area. [Racked]

Although women have been the traditional targets of manufacturers' vanity sizing, men are not immune: a sting operation by Esquire revealed that Old Navy is selling a pair of pants labeled a 36" waist that actually measures 41". [Esquire]